Tom Brady has defied logic by getting better at a skills test the Patriots use to see if players are declining
In 2016, Brady had one of the best seasons of his career, posting the second best completion percentage of his career, one of his best touchdown percentages, and the lowest interception percentage of his career.
However, Brady has also improved in other more subtle ways.
According to Bleacher Report's Dan Pompei, Brady continues to improve physically, defying logic for a player his age. Pompei reports that each year, the Patriots run combine-like tests to measure players' physical decline. Brady has only gotten better at the test.
"At the beginning of each season, the Patriots run their players through a battery of strength, speed and agility testing similar to combine drills. The purpose is to measure how the players are declining. But the damndest thing is happening with Brady. In each of the past three years, he improved his test scores in every category, according to [trainer Alex] Guerrero."
Brady said of the improved results, "I don't really correlate those numbers to being a better QB, but coaches and scouts like those things." However, he did tell Pompei that he feels better at 39 than he did at 29.
This is not the first time we've heard that Brady is still getting physically better. During the season, he, too, said he's faster than when he was in college, claiming he's docked a few tenths of a second off of his 40-yard dash time.
Brady's entire life is regimented around football, from his bedtime (9 o'clock), to his diet, to his workouts, which consist mostly of resistance-band training, not typical weight-lifting programs. If Brady is getting stronger, faster, and more agile at 39, perhaps playing until he's at least 45 isn't that laughable.